In conventional hand pallet trucks, the pole is used to steer and move the vehicle, as well as to pump for lifting a load. To operate the lifting apparatus, especially to lower the load, an operating element is required which should be easily accessible, and allow switching between the functions of lifting and driving as well as sensitive lowering of the load.
Easy accessibility of the operating element is especially important for effective operation of the hand pallet truck when pulling the vehicle, i. e. when the pole is an inclined position in front of the vehicle. By contrast, actuating the functions with upright pole, i. e. when the vehicle is being pushed, is less important, because in most cases the vehicle is drawn out of the pallet, thereby returning the pole into the inclined position.
For pumping and moving the vehicle, it is of advantage if the pole handle is centrally grippable in order to avoid unnecessary steering as well as frictional forces. At the same time, the actuating forces at the operating element should be as small as possible in all situations requiring a longer actuating path, which might be realized by providing a longer distance between the circle point and the lever pivot point, for example.
It is known to use an extension of the pole bar traversing the handle as a mounting component for an operating lever extending to the sides. This known pole handle has the drawback that it cannot be gripped centrally. From DE 297 10 503 U1 it is further known to pivotally mount a control lever at the upper end of the portion of the bar extending into the handle. The lever must be pushed away from the operator to achieve a lowering of the load. Pulling the lever towards the operator will result in a switch to the lifting function. A drawback of this design is that the operator cannot actuate the functions well while pulling the vehicle because the control lever has to be pulled upwards to achieve a lowering action. Further, since the operating element is not familiar from other technical devices, it is less suitable for intuitive operation. The actuating forces are great due to the small distance between the circle point and the lever pivot point.
It is an object of the invention to provide a pole for a hand pallet truck which allows central gripping of the pole bar while keeping the actuating forces as low as possible, and which may be operated intuitively.